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The Early Years - 1903-1919
Lower left: An early "3-pointed" F-2 advertisement from the June 1903 issue of "The Cadenza" with the "star and crescent moon" peghead inlays, that came from a Turkish supplier in Grand Rapids, MI. Lower right: The rather famous "Mr. Potato-bug" cartoon by William Foster from 1908. Gibson Mandolin is sweeping off the "Eternal Progress Platform" with the "New Era" broom. Gibson was serious about trashing competitors like Brandt, Regal, Waldo, and Bay State.
Unlike other American instrument manufacturers, Gibson also advertised in several ‘main stream’ magazines like Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Cosmopolitan. Lower left is an example of a Nov. 1914 ad featuring the F4 Mandolin and the Style U Harp Guitar from Popular Mechanics. The Dec. 1919 Popular Science ad (lower right) promoted “Companionship and Music” one of the many ways Gibson promoted their philosophy of music as an essential part of a healthy life style.
L.A. Williams was one of the original founders of The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. and also served as General Manager, as well as the "power" behind much of Gibson's advertising from 1903 to 1919. The brash, bold, and often head-scratching prose of Williams' advertizing slogans prompted the phrase "the gospel according to L.A. Wiiliams", and probably the most well-known expression - "Everyone A Gibson-ite".
Above: My personal favorite of all L.A. Williams' slogans. Below are a few more examples of Mr. Williams' unique brand of sales slogans.
Below: One of the first-ever ads to show a guitar - The Gibson Style O - sometimes called the "Artist" model, which was introduced in 1908. It was invented by the great George Laurian, a Gibson designer and engineer from the early years.
Below: It was common for Gibson to take out full page ads, and even the entire back cover like this 1916 issue of The Cadenza
These ads represent the "cost of inflation" c1915 - 1920. The couple with the harp guitar and mandolin appeared in many Gibson ads from this era.
It wasn’t until 1918 that Gibson entered the banjo market. There were many competitors who had been in the business of making banjos prior to 1918, including William Lange who made the Orpheum and Paramount brands; S.S. Stewart who started making banjos in the 1800s; and Bacon Banjos, founded by banjo virtuoso and pioneer, Fred Bacon (later called Bacon & Day). Gibson’s first ever banjo was the model TB (stood for tenor banjo), a fairly simple “open back” 4-string banjo. Here is one of the first advertisements for the TB that appeared in the April, 1919 issue of “Jacob’s Band Monthly.
Early in the 1920's Gibson was still mainly advertising their mandolins and banjos, but that would change as Gibson's management did in 1923. Here are a few examples of some early 20's ads from various magazines.
In 1923, Gibson introduced the first of the “Master Model” Style 5 instruments, the F5 Mandolin – “Again the World Hears a New Tone” promoting the revolutionary design of the F-5, the most imitated mandolin design. Gibson’s L.A. Williams, co-founder and General Manager and “Acoustic Engineer” Lloyd Loar where banking on the mandolin making a comeback which never happened. The popularity of the banjo dramatically decreased the popularity of the mandolin. In fact, both Williams and Loar left Gibson within a year after the F5 was introduced.
Lloyd Loar had also introduced the “Virzi Tone Projector” a rather strange little device that was installed in the body of many Style 5 instruments, including the F5 mandolin, H5 mandola, K5 mando-cello, and the legendary L5 arch top guitar. He also established an exclusive relationship with the Virzi Brothers, including distributing their violins, violas, cellos, and basses. This rare 1924 ad promoted this partnership, but it didn’t last long. After Loar’s departure, the Gibson – Virzi connection apparently left with him.
By 1925, under the new management of Guy Hart, General Manager and Frank Campbell, Sales & Advertising Manager, Gibson turned the focus of sales and advertising to promoting the now very popular banjo. As you can see from this Feb. 1928 ad from “The Crescendo” magazine, it was all banjos, and more banjos. By 1928, Gibson was no longer lagging behind its competitors, as they were producing some of the best banjos ever made, including the Mastertone Models.
Below left: The first Gibson flat-top guitar ad for the Model L-0 which was introduced in 1926. Below right: Gibson used many well-known banjo players to promote their instruments.
Below: A very rare c1926 Gibson sales brochure, including a "prototype" version of the L-5 guitar (3rd from the right) with a wider body and unusual peg head shape.
Below: Two 1920's L-5 ads, including one featuring the "Crooning Troubadour" Nick Lucas (lower left). Notice that Nick is actually playing a Gibson L-4 - oops. However, the L-5 illustration is the same odd protype version that appeared in the above brochure. Lower right: A fairly rare L-5 ad to appear in a mainstream magazine from 1929, with the classic "snake head" design.
Below left: Big full page ad promoting the quality of Gibson's instruments, including the team at the 225 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo factory. Below right: Another full page ad from 1929, including pictures of Gibson's management team: Guy Hart, General Manager (uuper right); Frank Campbell, Sales Manager (below Hart), and several Gibson sales reps.
After 1932, Gibson advertising dropped off considerably, mostly due to the Great Depression, but also the departure of Frank Campbell, Sales & Advertising Manager who left Gibson in December, 1931 for unknown reasons. Here's an extremely rare ad for a Gibson "protoype" baffle-guitar, or what Gibson called "an amplfying resonator". This guitar never made it into production and never appeared in any Gibson catalog.
These three ads from 1930 with one featuring Guy Hart and Frank Campbell, and another announcing the new Gibson Catalog that was released in May 1930. Called the “Blue Cover” catalog, because it had no official letter designation, and had a gold-embossed blue cover. It introduced many new instruments including Gibson’s legendary “L” series flat-top guitars with the newer 14 ¾” big-body design.
In 1931, Gibson introduced the L-00 flat top, but rarely ever advertised their less expensive instruments with the exception of this ad that appeared in the May-June issue of their own in-house magazine called “The Mastertone”. The ad also introduces the new TB-11 Mastertone banjo, which didn’t appear in a catalog until 1932 – Gibson Catalog ‘U’.
Above right: Three years before Gibson introduced its first electric Spanish guitar, the ES-150, they offered this unusual configuration of an L-50 round hole archtop guitar with built in pickup, cord, and amplfier. The amplifier was more of a speaker box with no volume or tone controls. This 'package' never appeared in a Gibson catalog or brochure, and was probably just a short-lived experiment.
Some more promotional ads from 1931.
Gibson didn't do a lot of advertising for one of it's most expensive guitars, the "Nick Lucas Special". Although this ad also appeared in Gibson's own magazine in 1930, it still shows an illustration of a 1928 Nick Lucas guitar.
Here are a couple of Popular Mechanics ads from 1930:
Gibson continued to advertise in "The Crescendo magazine up until 1933-34. Here are a couple of 1932 Crescendo ads, including Gibson's new "Mona Steel" strings.
Gibson's mainstream ads were geared toward the general public with catchy sayings like "Be Popular - Play Guitar", in order to attrach new customers. Here are a couple of examples:
In the mid-1930's, Gibson started advertising in a couple of music industry magazines like "Metronome" and "Down Beat". Here are two 1937 Metronome ads featuring prominent guitar players like George Smith (lower left) and Carl Kress (lower right).
Also from 1937, two "Gibson First in Radio" ads from Down Beat magazine:
This little "oddity" is actually cover art from a 1936 Gibson guitar instruction book, entitled “The Road to Happiness” a prominent saying that Gibson started using in catalogs and brochures as early as 1929, and promoting Gibson = Happiness. Who could argue with that?
Below: Two large posters of Vincent Lopez and Harry Reser.
"The War Years" - 1940-1949
Some historians and critics of Gibson suggested they were somehow ‘racist’ because they never showed an African American in any catalog, brochure or advertisement. However, this huge 2-page ad from the Feb. 1940 issue of “Down Beat’ featured Charlie Christian and his new Gibson ES-150 along side bandleader, Benny Goodman and fellow guitarist, Arnold Covey holding a “natural finish” Gibson Super 400.
Gibson continued to promote all of the well-lnown players using their guitars.
During WWII, Gibson continued to manufacture guitars, but were very proud of the work they were doing for the ‘war effort’ and these war time ads reflect that theme. They also introduced the famous “Only A Gibson Is Good Enough” banner.
Two great 1940s Billboard Magazine covers featuring Gibson players Alvino Rey and Nick Lucas
Below: Some more ads from the late 40's:
When Theodore "Ted" McCarty took over as General Manager of Gibson in 1948, he ushered in "The Golden Age" of Gibson. Gibson would introduce many new and innovative guitars under McCarty's reign, and arguably, some of the best electric guitars ever made. In 1966, McCarty left to take over as the head of Bigsby Manufacturing (vibrato tailpieces), also located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Shortly after his departure, CMI (Chicago Musical Instruments), who had acquired Gibson in 1944, sold them to The Norlin Company, bringing an end to Gibson's true "Golden Age".
These two 1953 ads featured Les Paul and Mary Ford, and the new Gibson “Les Paul” guitar that appeared in countless catalogs and advertisements. Although it did not have immediate success, it would go one to be the most recognizable guitar Gibson ever made. What is most unusual is the custom black Les Paul that Mary Ford is playing, and was not available in 1953. The black version of the “fretless wonder” didn’t appear in a catalog until 1955, but had a black pickguard. Do you wonder how much Mary Ford’s custom Les Paul is worth today?
Below right: A 1953 ad for the legendary L-5 CES, and extremely "collectable" guitar today. Below left: It wasn't until 1954 that Gibson introduced it's first-ever electric bass guitar, the EB-1 or "violin bass", a revelation in rhythm.
In 1955, Gibson announced another in a line of "Artist Model", with the NEW 'Byrdland', named after design & guitar player Billy Byrd. Also from 1955, an ad featuring Gibson player Herb Ellis.
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Gibson published a small newsletter in the 1950s called the "Gibson Gazette". On the left is the back cover of the Feb. 1958 edition and on the right, an ad for the NEW Gibson 'Flying V' and 'Explorer' - Strangely the 'Explorer' did NOT appear in Gibson's 1958 main catalog or any other catalog.
Below left: Also from a 1958 Gazette, Jimmy Dean was endorsing Gibson guitars, long beofre his own sausages. Also from the same issue, the new 'Maestro' series amplifiers.
Gibson continued the traditionof "artist" models that all started with the Nick Lucas Special, introduced in 1928. In addition to the Les Paul, Gibson also introduced models named after artists such as Barney Kessel, Trini Lopez, and Tal Farlow.
In the 1960's, Gibson continued to introduce new models, including some legendary guitars and basses like the Firebird and Thunderbird:
Taking a swipe at the competition (Fender), the back page of a 1965 edition of the Gibson Gazette had this ad entitled "No Springs Attached:" and on the front cover, an ad with Trini Lopez and the new Gibson guitar sporting his namesake. Ironic is the fact the the head stock of the TL looks like an upsidedown Fender Strat.
